Friends, the fallout continues from President Zelensky's disastrous Oval Office meeting with President Trump and Vice-President Vance. We've come a long way, apparently, from the days when Zelensky was celebrated throughout the West as a heroic -- nay, semi-divine -- figure. For one thing, the "minerals deal" seems now to be on the back burner. For another, some are speculating that Zelensky himself might step down or be replaced as Ukraine's leader, in order to smooth the path to peace. Well, I would be surprised if Zelensky was willing to resign. My guess is he'd rather see his own country go down in flames, and then flee to a comfortable exile in London or Paris, but we'll see. The bottom line remains, in my opinion, that Ukraine can accept whatever deal is negotiated by the United States, or it can lose the war and face an even more complete and humiliating defeat. Sometimes in life there are only bad choices, and we have to choose the least bad. Zelensky should have figured that out by now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-RR7w2YIcY
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2025/02/28/bessent-zelensky-own-goal/
Ukraine is but one of the topics that Brian and I cover in this week's Newsmakers show. We also reflect on Dan Bongino's elevation to Deputy Director of the FBI, the tragic demise of Gene Hackman, the dramatic realignment of the Washington Post, the relative success that Trump has had in winning confirmation for his cabinet appointments, how Elon Musk became one of the most hated men in the world, the elusive "swing voter" and what he thinks of Trump in his second term, the denouement of Mitch McConnell's long political career, the growing realization in Europe that they can't hide under the U.S. security umbrella forever, and the surprisingly positive impression that DJT had of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Whew! Who would have thought that all the world's problems could be solved by me in just a few minutes...but there it is.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: I heard a commentator today on one of the left leaning channels say that Putin's main motivation in attacking Ukraine was to eliminate the onerous democratic influence of Ukraine on Russia. I don't buy it. There are democratic forces in Russia itself and in nearby Nato protected Eastern Europe and Putin, though certainly authoritarian, is probably not a Stalin.
ReplyDeleteNo, I'll stick with the conviction that the supremely important , utterly serious motivation he had for invading was the increasingly real, understandably completely unendurable prospect of Ukraine in Nato. Uhh, can anyone really doubt that by his lights he had to act before Ukraine was actually inducted into Nato? Otherwise any redemption he sought would have run up against Nato's full power. With dead on realism, which is indispensable in this potentially nuclear situation, we cannot but objectively empathize, painful as Russian brutality makes it , with Russian intransigence on this . Russian geography and history make it undeniable. I think any agreement which satisfies Russia on this point will succeed.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: Zelensky: I still consider him a heroic and potentially tragic figure. He has faced death every day certainly since when Russia invaded and perhaps before it. He has commanded an astonishingly effective resistance to the Russian horde and its atavistic brutality. True, Western aid sustained him but he has been at extreme personal hazard, night and day, throughout. Should it ever become necessary I would hope we would welcome him and his family and close supporters into the U.S.
ReplyDeleteHe may well have conducted himself in a manner offensive to DJT and JD (the latter of whom KNOWS war) but I trust the recent verbal confrontation will yet be part of a constructive dialectic process. Zelensky will have to accept onerous conditions ( they may even drive him out of office)possibly even manifesting galling domestic ingratitude for his efforts. But his country's ordeal has become a proxy war far too worldly and consequential for him to control. The best Ukraine can expect is preservation of its fundamentally Ukrainian regions (it does not have a strong claim to the Crimea)and a Nato warning to Russia not to approach its border in western Ukraine. The mineral deal should provide it much defacto security since the U.S. would then have important ECONOMIC, not military considerations in Ukraine which Russia would have to "respect" and in which it might even join eventually.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: Yes, JD and DJT used this valiant man roughly but in doing so gave him a perhaps valuable lesson in present day international realpolitik. Yes, we wronged Ukraine by recklessly encouraging it in its hope for Nato protection from the age old threat of too often barbarian Russia. Now we offer Ukraine a modus vivendi which can preserve most of their country. We simply cannot risk the war with Russia we SHOULD have seen as an unavoidable consequence .Avoidance of it now could bring about a very favorable Russia - U.S. rapprochement which could benefit all of Europe, even including Ukraine.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: I was wrong in my suggestion that DJT had not addressed the curse of far left degradation of our education establishment. I read now that the Dep't of Education has made it clear that , pursuant to Pres. Trump's EO, continuation of far left prejudice will not be tolerated and that resistance will certainly result in denial of Federal funding. Good!
ReplyDeleteThe Director of NY's grievously far left compromised state university system lamented this development in public today. Get with the program, mister!
Dr. Waddy from Jack : Re: the Newsmaker broadcast: I don't think any of us, though we trusted a much tried and experienced DJT would be much more effective , anticipated the astonishing effect his election has had on our polity and our culture !
ReplyDeleteBezos' admonishment to his editors: I fully agree with you that it is very, very important. He's a canny businessman (a status daily growing in stature for obvious reasons ) and he knows which side the bread is buttered on. He's not going down with the sinking ship; he has better things to do. That and other recent corporate renunciations of their erstwhile acquiescence to far left blackmail are dreadful omens for antiamerica. " The business of America is (still)business!" Not only will his much noted edict defang a virulent spokespiece for the far left but , because of its flagship credence for its patrons, work a very demoralizing effect on them and their hard left Svengalis in a time now of almost unrelenting setback for their incipient totalitarian dreams. "What's next!!??" they may bleat and in their deepening despair lurks the possibility of them going off the deep end into marginalization as they drive off the somewhat common sense, good will part of their much shamed, much
deservedly wounded party. AOC is ready!
Dr. Wady from Jack: I am very much encouraged by your perception that the MSM is becoming irrelevant. How long our country has endured their unprofessional biases and their virulent contempt for America. GOOD RIDDANCE and hearty welcome to their contradictory antitheses, those principled outlets you cited in the Newsmaker broadcast: Fox, Newsmax etc. They are the present and the future; the MSM is steadily regressing to a part of an unlamented past in which they obsequiously promoted hatred of their country and reflexive worship of those who would impose the most discredited of all doctrines, Marxism, on an unwilling America. Its yet another shining benefit of this maybe unprecedented deracination of our country from a conqueror worm.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: "We didn't elect Musk , they huff! No and WE didn't elect Marxist coddling Soros or Al Sharpton or First Lady Hillary. That is on the negative side.
ReplyDeleteAlternatively: we didn't elect FDR's indefatigable right hand man Harry Hopkins , or David Stockman (Pres. Reagan's budget limiter) or any other of a no doubt extensive list of advisers without portfolio who have counseled and aided our Presidents.
Sorry far lefties but this your characteristic condemnation upon accusation of Musk betrays your obviously growing desperation as your doctrinal foundation cracks and bodes collapse.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: Re again the Newsmaker broadcast: the middle of our polity. Most of them are far too busy leading positive and constructive lives to spare much time for politics. How much of car mechanic knowledge does Charles Schumer have or "community organizer" Obama or dreamy hateful radical AOC ?
ReplyDeleteAt one time businessmen were considered part of the politically ignorant masses by those who lived only political lives. Ehhh, those doubters have been wised up, yes? They'd best be so because more of the same are on the rise (eg. Ramaswamy) because of the increasingly obvious management skills the bring to government. And due to their capitalist , free enterprise beliefs, if they will, they are emotional anathema to the Marxists who still infest our polity in many disguises.And far leftists cannot abide emotional upset, even with the aid of Maalox and other palliatives.
Jack, I find the notion that what Russians object to in modern Ukraine is its shining example of democratic purity utterly laughable. There was nothing about Ukraine itself that Russia needed to fear in 2022, or that Russia has EVER needed to fear. What keeps Putin and his ilk up at night, quite obviously, is the West, and the sense that Western forces, including military forces, are closing in on them. I mean, they did grow up thinking about little else! This isn't complicated, in my view.
ReplyDeleteJack, you make an intriguing point that Zelensky is lucky to be alive. This is, in fact, something that has long puzzled me. Russia has hypersonic missiles. It could, presumably, vaporize the Ukrainian Parliament, or Zelensky himself, on demand. Why haven't they? Are they afraid of our reaction? If so, might that calculus change, going forward?
Agreed: we bear grave responsibility ourselves for this war, since we baited Ukraine into assuming a provocative posture vis-a-vis Russia. Now let's end what we helped begin, and which never should have begun in the first place.
Threatening the cessation of funding to higher ed is a good first step. Actually cutting off funds to at least one university would make it credible.
Jack, if Bezos and Amazon are turning rightward, I wonder who will help fill the gap in terms of wholesome entertainment programming. Say, for instance, one doesn't wish to make tv shows and movies that denigrate traditional values. Where does one find the writers, producers, directors, actors, etc. to transform such a vision into reality? I mean, the industry has been so thoroughly captured by neo-Marxists (and just plain Marxists) that all the good will in the world towards the right will be hard to translate into a genuine cultural rebirth. I hope Bezos has a solution in mind.
Jack, you forgot to mention that we "didn't elect" whoever ruled America from 2021 to 2025 either!
Dr. Waddy from Jack: Many very good points from you!
ReplyDeleteMaybe the Rus have refrained from liquidating Zelensky only for tactical reasons. If they had swept Ukraine, I'm sure , he would have been handled very, very badly.
You are right: let the administration make an example of a very prominent old "university" today shamefully captured by the far left. Cut off their Federal funding and watch it assuredly crawl back mewing for nutritious largesse from the heretofore scorned taxpayer and willing to undergo any (probably disingenuous) penance.
Great point that the entertainment industry, thoroughly imbued as it is with America haters, would , if it were painfully constrained to send them to the unemployment line, be but a husk of its theretofore corrupted self. Poor dears; no doubt North Korea or Cuba would welcome them into production of stirring "socialist realism" though perhaps not quite affording them the directly vindictive affirmation they receive when degrading their hated U.S. , not to mention the sybaritic surroundings to which they are accustomed in this "oppressive" land.